Burger chains agree to health-drive revolution

Some of Britain's biggest fast-food outlets including McDonald's and KFC have agreed to a historic deal with the Government to make their food more healthy as part of a campaign to cut heart disease and obesity.

Burger King. Wimpy, Nando's and Subway have also promised to cut salt and fat levels over the next year.

Staff will be trained to give diners information on healthy options and to respond to demands to cook food without added sauces or salt. Nando's has also promised to make nutritional information public. The commitments – to be monitored by the Food Standards Agency – will change food that is eaten by three million people a day at more than 4,000 British outlets.

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Nutritionists have for some time complained that while the big grocery chains have cut salt, sugar and fat from their own brands, restaurants and fast-food outlets have remained unpoliced and unreformed. One in six meals is eaten out of home, a figure that is set to grow in the next decade.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) intends to announce similar deals with coffee-shop chains, pubs and family restaurant chains early next year. It said the commitments were part of a long-term collaboration with the catering sector following a deal with workplace caterers earlier this year.

"These are six of the biggest names on the high street, so it is an extremely positive step that for the first time they have agreed to work with us in this way," said the FSA's head of nutrition, Rosemary Hignett. "People see eating out as an enjoyable treat and we don't wish to change that but we believe that restaurants can help make it easier for us all to take healthier choices when eating outside of our homes."

The American chain Subway, which has 1,300 outlets in the UK and Ireland, will offer free salad with its sub sandwiches as a trial as well as cutting salt and fat in its best-selling products. Nando's committed itself to offering fewer products that warrant a "red" sign under the FSA's traffic-light labelling system. It will also reveal the nutritional content of its food on its website but not in its 800-plus stores.

Burger King, which has 512 UK outlets, said it would cut salt in its burgers and test a cooking oil with less saturated fat. Wimpy promised to review salt and sugar levels in its 10 most popular products by summer 2009.

KFC is to introduce lower-fat mayonnaise in its 720 stores and promised to hit the FSA's 2010 salt targets for its tortillas and "twister" products by the end of the year. It would also cut salt in its chicken fillets. McDonald's said it would continue to work on making health improvements but did not make any specific commitments. "We have done a huge amount already and we have always been of the mind that we don't make forward promises so that's why the forward commitments are rather vague," a spokesman said.

Jeanette Longfield, a campaigner at the food and farming group Sustain, said: "It's a good thing if they have agreed to change what they are doing but it depends on what they are doing. Fast food chains are influential. Supermarkets say it is difficult for them to reformulate their takeaway meals if the actual takeaways aren't lower in salt or fat, because they don't taste the same."

FAST FOOD

Burger King, Chicken Royale with cheese

Calories: 661

Fat: 38 grams

Salt: 4.3 grams

Sugar: 6 grams

Subway, Meatball Marinara

Calories: 520

Fat: 22 grams

Salt: 4.7 grams

Sugar: 16 grams

McDonald's, Big Mac

Calories: 490

Fat: 24 grams

Salt: 2.1 grams

Sugar: 8 grams